1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an ink supplying apparatus for use in a printing press such as a rotary press or a sheet-fed printing press, and more particularly to an ink supplying apparatus equipped with an ink tray attachable/detachable to an ink fountain.
2) Description of the Related Art
As FIGS. 12 and 13 show, a printing press such as a rotary press or a sheet-fed printing press is provided with an ink supplying apparatus 100 in which an ink fountain 102 is placed in front of an ink fountain roller 101. The ink fountain 102 is composed of a circumferential surface of the ink fountain roller 101, a plurality of ink keys (blades) 103 constituting a bottom section of the ink fountain 102, and two side plates 104 (only one on the interior side is shown in FIG. 12) provided at both side surfaces of each of the ink keys 103 so that their front edges come into contact with the circumferential surface of the ink fountain roller 101 to slide thereon. In this construction, an ink lying within the ink fountain 102 is supplied through a gap between the ink fountain roller 101 and the tip portion of each of the ink keys 103 to the ink fountain roller 101 and then transferred through a non-shown calling roller to a group of ink rollers lying on the downstream side.
The plurality of ink keys 103 are, as shown in FIG. 13, arranged in parallel with each other in a lateral direction of the apparatus so that the ink keys 103, 103 adjacent to each other are brought into sliding contact with each other while both the end ink keys 103 and the side plates 104 are brought into sliding contact with each other. In addition, the ink keys are made to be driven independently of each other to rock or swing about a supporting shaft 105, and an ink quantity control device 106 is situated under the respective ink keys 103.
The ink quantity control device 106 is provided with a adjusting cam 106b engaging with a lower surface of the tip portion of each of the ink keys 103 and a pusher 106a brought into contact with the adjusting cam 106b to rock the adjusting cam 106b by its telescopic motion, namely, protruding/retracting movements. Additionally, the tip portion of each of the ink keys 103 is driven to rock in a manner that the pusher 106a is operated appropriately to protrude/retract for rocking the adjusting cam 106b so that its engaging portion of the adjusting cam 106b with the ink key 103 lifts/lowers, thereby controlling the gap between the ink key 103 and the ink fountain roller 101 to adjust the thickness of the ink film to be supplied.
Meanwhile, in the aforesaid conventional ink supplying apparatus, a microscopic gap is secured between the adjacent ink keys 103, 103 and between both the end ink keys 103 and the side plates 104 in order to permit the mutual sliding motion. Accordingly, there is a possibility that the ink permeates through the very small gap, for example, between the ink keys 103, 103 by the capillary phenomenon or the like. If the ink is hardened after permeating through the gap between the ink keys 103, 103, the operation of the ink keys 103 becomes unstable and the worst case reaches the difficulty of movement thereof, so that a problem exists in that the high-accuracy control of the ink film becomes impossible.
In addition, after the completion of printing or in the ink replacement, although there is a need to clean the interior of the ink fountain 102 by wiping off the ink remaining in the interior of the ink fountain 102 with a waste or the like, or by washing it off with a cleaning solvent, the removal of the ink is difficult because the ink shows a high viscosity. Particularly, difficulty is experienced in removing the ink permeating into the gap between the ink keys 103, 103 so that a severe burden falls on the cleaning worker.
Still additionally, although, for improving the productivity, there is a need to shorten the preparation for the order change for enhancing the availability fact of the apparatus, if the load on the cleaning in the ink replacement is severe as mentioned above, the cleaning takes time largely. For this reason, it has been desired strongly to relieve the burden to be imposed on the worker through the labor-saving in the cleaning operation and further to enhance the availability factor of the apparatus through the shortening of the cleaning time.
Accordingly, this applicant has developed a construction in which an interior-placed container (which is referred to as an ink tray) for covering the upper surfaces of the ink keys or the inner surfaces of the side plates is detachably installed in the interior of the ink fountain for less direct adhesion of the ink to the ink keys or the side plates. In the case of the installation of such an ink tray, there exists one problem in a method for easy attachment/detachment of the ink tray.
It is therefore an object of the prevent invention to provide an ink supplying apparatus equipped with an ink tray capable of achieving the labor-saving of the cleaning operation and the shortening of the working time at ink replacement or the like in a printing press to improve the productivity, and designed to accomplish satisfactory attachment/detachment of the ink tray to improve the operational performance thereof.
For these purposes, an ink supplying apparatus according to this invention involves the following features.
First, for achieving the foregoing object, in accordance with this invention, an ink supplying apparatus which supplies an ink from an ink fountain to an ink fountain roller is characterized by comprising an ink tray set detachably in the interior of the ink fountain in a manner that brackets provided at its left- and right-hand end portions are mounted on side plates constituting left- and right-hand side walls of the ink fountain, a stopping section provided in the ink fountain to come into contact with a front end portion of the ink tray for stopping the ink tray, and a fixing device provided in front of the ink fountain for pressing each of the brackets against the stopping section to fix the ink tray in the ink fountain, wherein the fixing device includes a supporting member placed under a mounting plane of the bracket, a rotating member made to be rotatable in a plane substantially perpendicular to a cross direction of the apparatus in a state where its one end is supported by the supporting member, pressing means provided on the rotating member for pressing the brackets in a state where the rotating member rotates upwardly so that the ink tray is fixed in the ink fountain, and arresting means for arresting the rotation of the rotating member when the pressing means presses the brackets.
With this construction, when the ink tray is mounted in the ink fountain, the fixing device fixes the mounting position of the ink tray surely in the ink fountain to prevent the adhesion of the ink to the ink fountain certainly.
In addition, since the pressing means, coming into contact with the brackets to press it, is made to rotate together with the rotating member, at the removal/mounting of the ink tray from/into the ink fountain, the ink tray does not interfere with the pressing means and the rotating member so that the attachment/detachment of the ink tray from/to the ink fountain is facilitated to improve the operating efficiency.
Preferably, the arresting means is made up of a hooking member placed on the rotating member and a hooked member placed on an upward engaging locus of the rotating member, and the rotation of the rotating member is arrested in a manner that the hooking member catches the hooked member at the upward rotation of the rotating member.
In this case, since it is possible to arrest the rotation of the rotating member only by engaging the hooking member with the hooked member at the upward rotation of the rotating member, the fixing operation of the ink tray becomes easy.
More preferably, an elongated hole is made in the supporting member so that a supporting shaft set one end portion of the rotating member is supported rotatably by the elongated hole, and a claw is used as the hooking member while a pin is used as the hooked member so that the claw catches the pin in a manner that the rotating member is driven to slide along the elongated hole while being rotated upwardly on the supporting shaft.
In this case, since it is possible to arrest the rotation of the rotating member only by hooking the claw on to the pin, the operation becomes facilitated.
More preferably, a screw is used as the pressing means so that the bracket is pressed by the tip portion of the screw when the screw is tightened.
In this instance, since it is possible to press the bracket only by tightening the screw, the fixing of the ink tray becomes easy and, additionally, since the pressing force is adjustable by the degree of the tightening of the screw, the ink tray can be fixed surely at an optimal pressing force.
Furthermore, for achieving the object, in accordance with this invention, an ink supplying apparatus which supplies an ink from an ink fountain to an ink fountain roller is characterized by comprising an ink tray set detachably in the interior of the ink fountain and equipped with a pin protrusively formed on each of its left- and right-hand end portions, and a hooker installed on an operating space side in front of the ink fountain for catching the pin to temporarily hold the ink tray in the exterior of the ink fountain.
Thus, at the removal of the ink tray from the ink fountain, since the hooker is hooked on to the fixing pin to hold the ink tray temporarily, the operator can shift the ink tray from one hand to the other for easy carrying, thus lessening the burden to be imposed on the operator who handles the ink tray.
In addition, since the ink tray can temporarily be held immediately after the removal from the ink fountain, the operator can conduct various operations, such as cleaning of the interior of the ink fountain and cleaning of the ink tray itself, while handling the ink tray, thus accomplishing the operations according to a higher-efficiency program.
Preferably, on the front side of the ink fountain, a fixing device is provided which comprises a engaging member engaging/disengaging with/from the pin and engages said engaging member with said pin to fix said ink tray in the interior of said ink fountain, and said engaging member functions as said hooker when said engaging member is disengaged from said pin.
In this case, since the engaging member constituting the fixing device for fixing the ink tray is also used as the hooker, the number of parts is reducible.
More preferably, the ink tray is set in the interior of the ink fountain in a manner that brackets set on its left- and right-hand end portions are mounted on side plates constituting left- and right-hand side walls of the ink fountain, and a supporting member is placed under a mounting plane of the brackets, while the engaging member is rotated in a plane substantially perpendicular to a cross direction of the apparatus in a state where one end portion of the engaging member is supported by the supporting member and engages with the pin in a state rotated upwardly and functions as the hooker in a state rotated downwardly.
In this instance, since the engaging member functions as the hooker when rotated to under the bracket mounting plane, if the ink tray is drawn out from the ink fountain to the front side and shifted dowanwardly, the fixing pin is caught by the hooker to hold the ink tray temporarily, which permits easy handling of the ink tray without imposing a burden.